The right wing of the republican party has set its sights on organizing what it considers to be a gentrifying neighborhood. The republicans are apparently upset that, when all those republicans move in from the suburbs, they vote democratic. They want to change that.

Their tool is Larry Horist, who comes from the far right wing of the Illinois republican party. Larry specializes in astroturf, meaning, bogus "grass roots" organizing. He was worked with "women's" groups, which oppose affirmative action for women. He has worked with an outfit called "consumer
alert", which issued a press release for Earth Day, calling for "responsible environmentalism", meaning, let industry do whatever it wants. He worked on the petition drive to get Steve Forbes on the ballot in Illinois. Larry is probably best known as a republican candidate for Mayor, who lost the
primary to a fellow called "Sparky The Clown."

His group is called Illinois Public Policy Caucuses, and he refuses to disclose his funding sources -- he even brags about the fact that he keeps his funding secret.

He organized a "grass roots" meeting in Pilsen, a Latino neighborhood in the South Side, and spread scare stories about how the City was planning to turn Halsted into a truck route. Rumors spread that the street was going to be widened, that parking would be banned, and that legions of trucks would be rumbling down Halsted on a regular basis.

In fact, the City has adopted a plan which would make Halsted look essentially like Greek Town -- narrower streets, new light fixtures, a lot of trees, and all new streets and sidewalks, with 24-hour parking, and a bike lane. Horist knew this before he held the meeting, where he painted horror stories about trucks rumbling down the street.

His plan is apparently to scare everybody, organize a petition drive, and then take credit for what the City was already planning to do. There are rumors that his hand-picked "facilitator", (who may be a resident, but
hardly anyone in the neighborhood knows her) wants to run for Alderman. He even moved his daughter into the neighborhood so he could claim some local connection.

He has organized a "demonstration" tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. on the 1800 block of Halsted, where local artists are invited to "show their appreciation for the sidewalks by doing chalk art." These hapless artists apparently do not realize that they are being recruited to assist Horist with his right-wing agenda, and to cut their own throats by supporting a
gentrifier.

The streets belong to all of us. We too have a right to express our opinions with chalk on the sidewalks of Pilsen. Please come, and express your opinions about Mr. Horist and his agenda.